(...Story Continued from Previous Page) I mean, I'm the
artist, but who am I to tell someone else which is a better song?
Did that experience of revisiting your catalogue affect the new album
at all?
It probably did, going through all that, dusting them off and airing them
out. It was an emotional ride, in a way. Forcing me to look at these songs made
me open to the idea of going back.
When we were demoing songs for "West," I dug up "Circles and X's" and "If
Wishes Were Horses." I'm always writing, but when I really sit down to write, I
have a folder of everything I've ever worked on, every song, all the notes of
all the old songs. That's when I finished "Circles" -- the refrain was written
20 years ago, but I couldn't figure out what to do with the verses, so I
finished that. "Wishes" was pretty much done already, so I just edited that and
polished it up.
I feel like I've come full circle. I moved around with different styles and
kinda came back. I got a lot of stuff out of my system -- in my personal life,
too, I've been through the mill and lived to tell about it. But I've always been
a late bloomer, so it took a long time to find my soul mate and figure out who I
am.
You close the album with a cover of AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the
Top." Did you just do that for the kick, for the sound and the feel? Is it a
coincidence that it shares a theme with "Little Rock Star?"
Tom came up with the idea of doing "Long Way to the Top." He pointed out the
concept, which also comes up in the song "Rarity," and he liked putting it at
the end. He gets all the credit. He brings a lot to the table in terms of
conceptualizing, sequencing. In the past, I never really thought about that
stuff too much.
We're ending the show with "Long Way to the Top," too. The first part is me
on an acoustic, with the band, then we do some different stuff, then we do "Out
of Touch," and I switch to electric for the rest of the show
As you change from acoustic to electric, which feels most like home
for you now?
They're both home. I just kind of switch gears, but they're both me! It's all
just a part of what I do.
Alan Light is the former editor-in-chief of Spin, Vibe and Tracks
magazines and a former senior writer at Rolling Stone. His writing has also
appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ and Entertainment Weekly. His
book "The Skills to Pay the Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys" was published
in 2006. Alan is a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for
excellence in music writing.
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